Nine persons were killed when the auto rickshaw in which they were travelling collided head-on with an APSRTC bus in Kurnool district.
13 people belonging to Penugondla and Kalapari villages of Kodumuru block were going to Mahanandi to seek herbal medicines for their eye problems in the auto rickshaw when it collided with the bus coming from the opposite direction, near Somayajulapalle village under Orvakallu block.
The Orvakallu police said that the auto rickshaw was going on the wrong side of the Kurnool-Nandyal main road. The auto driver desperately tried to avoid colliding with the bus, but the bus was coming at a high speed and rammed with huge momentum into the three-wheeler.
Such was the impact of the collision that the auto was flung into the air and fell on the side of the road.
Seven of the passengers died on the spot while two others died in the Kurnool government hospital. Five others, including the auto driver, were critically injured, and are undergoing treatment.